"This Is Not Just a Fringe"

[snot]

I received this from a friend today:

"I am in such despair over this. the idea that so many americans can be led around by the nose by a handful of slick pr types is just depressing.

"when the drive-by accusations got particularly crazy this past week I sent an email to the aunt/uncle of mine in texas who are most well traveled, most educated, probably most intelligent. I said I just wanted a reality check that what I was seeing in the news didn't represent mainstream people like them. I expected some kind of response like, well, we don't like obama's policies but those people are way out of line.

"to my horror my aunt came back and said, yes it does, these people are absolutely right, followed by some of the worst nightmarish fears about obama and the police state he wants to create to take away all our freedoms etc. and health care of course if there is a public option anywhere in the picture it will bankrupt all the private insurance companies and bankrupt the country and the taxpayers will have to pay for it all. I have spent most of the past week just pulling articles and sending them stories and trying to chip away at the incredible *assumptions* that they base their opinions on because these memes have been accreting for months and months. I wrote a 13 page opus which I haven't yet sent, it was that long because in order to even find common ground to talk from I had to go sooo far back into the basics. yesterday my aunt sent me an email saying that their favorite columnist now is charles krauthammer look what he has to say, followed by one of those chain emails where the 'friend' of the sender provides a synopsis of what krauthammer supposedly said in a meeting he attended, with half the point presumably something that krauthammer might say although in less inciteful language, and the others such outrageous propaganda that I can't belive even krauthammer would have said it. I actually emailed him at the Post to ask for confirmation if the email accurately reflected his opinions. then I spent half an evening reading through back krauthammer editorials to find what he really said, which looks to be about 180 degrees from what the email said he said. but my very intelligent aunt and uncle believe all this because their friends all believe it and it's so self reinforcing and they don't know how to dissect propaganda and they're too naive to realize just how easily manipulated these things can be. they grew up in a world where 'the news' was (mostly) impartial and you could pretty well believe what you heard and people who shouted crazy stuff were called on it and shunned. so now if it's on the news and enough people applaud the crazy stuff it all must be true?

"these are very intelligent people and they genuinely believe that obama is trying to take away our democracy. or so it seems.

"the point being that this is not just a fringe. this is 'real people'. and they've bought the whole package. I will continue working on my aunt and uncle, because it's the least I can do, but it's very very scary, this place we've got to."

[imdjh]

1. I was shocked to discover that an old internet "friend" was a birther.

For whatever reason, this educated and published man has made his name in conservative circles. But to find out that he's a birther was stunning.

[Cha]

10. Is it "birfer" or racism? Or

self delusion, egomania, etc?

[unpossibles]

2. well, yes and no

the problem is, the Fringe groups are driving the train, the media is feeding them the fuel, and normal citizens who are not informed are climbing aboard. Is it any shock that support for health care is falling, when people hear the outrageous lies from the right, such as the death panel bullshit?

[Frustratedlady]

3. I'm finding the same with some of my Texan friends.

To begin with, their main concern is that their wealth will be taken away. (These are the same people who lost half their mutual funds, but didn't complain because it was George at the helm!)

They don't believe anything about the environment going to pot because it came out of Gore's mouth.

They won't even talk about Clinton, except to say he was guilty of more crimes than George even thought of.

This has caused a chasm to form between us, which I hate. However, I feel so strongly that we are on the right side, I will also continue to work on them.

Maybe it's the water?

[kentuck]

4. I think there are two groups.

One being the fringe, and easily manipulated, and not knowing the actual facts of the issues. And the other group understands the facts and intentionally manipulates the facts for their own political gain, seeing it as all is fair in war and politics...

[glinda]

6. Bingo!

[spanone]

5. the right wing is stoking these people with WRONG/BAD information

ON PURPOSE

[OneGrassRoot]

7. In my experience, it is not fringe thinking at all....

but the norm. I have birthers all around -- not only physically where I live in NC, but family throughout the country, North, South, East and West.

Bottom line, as others have expressed, my feeling is that racism underlies the vast majority of this mindset. Some are overt racists and proud of it, others don't even realize they're racist.

For example, my one aunt swears up and down she isn't a racist. Yet when Obama won she said, "Well, that's good, but I just hope 'they' don't start raising a ruckus and rioting in the streets and such."

Uhhhh, okay. oy.

Even those like my aunt are uncomfortable or unsettled that America (at least the one portrayed on TV) is no longer a reflection of them: white.

For older white men, it's extra unsettling, given Hillary, Sotomayor, and Pelosi.

;)

[Greyhound]

8. You state twice that these are intelligent people, yet the entire content

of your post indicates just the opposite.

Intelligent people don't decide and accept whatever is told to them and they don't go along with the absurd because "everybody's doing it".

Unfortunately, you are right that the numbers of the flock are growing. We have no means to effectively counteract the corporate megaphone because those susceptible to it do not seek out information, but do passively accept what they are told. This has become a defining characteristic of Americans.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. Somebody posted a great .jpg last week. I think it's time to translate it.

This morning I was awaken by my alarm clock powered by electricity generated by the public power monopoly regulated by the US Department of Energy. I then took a shower in the clean water provided by the municipal water utility. After that, I turned on the TV to one of the FCC regulated channels to see what the National Weather Service of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration determined the weather was going to be like using satellites designed, built, and launched by the
National Aeronautics and Space Administration. I watched this while eating my breakfast of US Department of Agriculture inspected food and taking the drugs which have been determined to be safe by the Food and Drug Administration.

At the appropriate time, as regulated by the US Congress and kept by the National Institute of Standards and Technology and the US Naval Observatory, I get into my National Highway Traffic Safety Administration approved automobile and set out to work on the roads built by the local, state, and federal departments of transportation, possibly stopping to purchase additional fuel of a quality level determined by the Environmental Protection Agency, using legal tender issued by the Federal Reserve Bank. On the way out the door, I deposit any mail I have to be sent out via the US Postal Service and drop the kids off at the public school.

After work, I drive my NHTSA car back home on the DOT roads, to a house which has not burned down in my absence because of the state and local building codes and fire marshal's inspection, and which has not been plundered of all it's valuables thanks to the local police department.

I then log onto the internet which was developed by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Administration and post on freerepublic.com and foxnews.com forums about how SOCIALISM in medicine is BAD because the government can't do anything right!

[snot]

11. Not just racism, though that's a likely factor, but

the ownership of 95% or more of the "mainstream" media by conservatives.

This illustrates why I'm so freaked by Dem pols' indifference to the media control issue.

I've been v. interested to see Obama taking his arguments directly to the people via the internet and in person, since that seemed to show that at least he had an inkling that his messages are unlikely to get through the usual channels, and v. interested to see what success he has . . .

[meow2u3]

12. There is only one word that accurately describes those right-wing town hall kooks

Terrorists!

[meow2u3]

13. Self-delete--dupe

[footinmouth]

14. It's so hard when it's family

I just have an awful time when it's family members spouting this stuff. I really don't want to know that they think this way. In my case, they are also intelligent people. One is a retired orthopedic surgeon. He's a good man, I just don't get where he's coming from. My conversations with him have always remained civil, but I've never been able to change his mind on a thing. Very frustrating.